Recycle Everything –
Don’t let anything go to waste!
The commitment to go green often involves being innovative when it comes to recycling even the smallest things, and finding better ways to improve the ways you manage your resources, and even your trash!
Guest Post by: Sookie Lioncourt
Recycle Everything
With an average person generating 4 pounds of trash every day and 1.5 tons of solid waste per year, it’s reducing the amount of things we throw out and recycling whatever we can that serve as the key to a brighter tomorrow. We all know that we can recycle bottles, cans, and boxes, but is that all that you can segregate?
What about…Your roof?
Yes, everything from the wrappers of the food that you eat up to the roof over your heads can be recycled.
If your roof is made of shingles or tiles, you can use old tiles that have been replaced with various other projects around the house.
Of course, if you don’t feel like working with heavy tiles or slate, you could also bring them down to your local recycling center, as more and more centers have begun accepting them for use in other reconstruction efforts.
Schools will also serve to benefit from taking in old roofing tiles because they can be used by students when building props for their plays.
Warm up here…
Even the clothes off your back can be recycled and reused. Up-cycling has become quite a big thing nowadays, and the trend is also becoming part of bigger relief effort to help third world countries.
For the past few years, Oxfam has partnered with Marks & Spencer to resell, reuse, or recycle old clothes, making over $13.43 million, which has been used to help provide avenues of livelihood to impoverished people.
While you could very well opt to donate all your old clothes to charities like Oxfam, you could also opt to work on some up-cycling projects instead, turning old threads into new household items and giving your textiles a new lease on life.
Recycle Everything Cats Clothing
What about your make-up?
Surveys by SmartGirl.org show that almost half of all women wear makeup every day, while others prefer to wear it only on special occasions.
Whatever the case may be, it’s no secret that cosmetics don’t have an infinite shelf life, and it’s important to keep your makeup fresh.
Thousands upon thousands of makeup containers like old lipstick cases and compact powder cases are thrown out regularly, and these end up in landfills with other beauty products.
However, since most of these cases are made out of plastic, it’s entirely possible to recycle the items instead of just dumping them in the trash.
Plastic is something that is always in need in recycling plants, so your old makeup kit will surely find a good home.
Recycle Everything – Cosmetics
Your Old Paint Cans
There’s a running joke about paint cans, rollers and paint brushes…
Recycle Everything – old paint containers
This might be true, but one of the most annoying parts of doing a paint job involves the cleaning up.
More often than not, you’re left with a bucket of paint that’s dried up and can’t really be used for much of anything other than as a flower pot.
But just like plastics, cans are always in demand in recycling facilities, with many of them reusing the old metal in various projects.
However, if you really want to make the most out of your paint cans, your best bet would be to bring them to a specialist, or back to the original factory or warehouse. Most of these places have methods of heating up the dried up paint to be able to reuse it, and they would also know how to best reuse the cans without running the Teflon lining coating the inside of the cans.
Your Computers
Of course, even your computers could break down someday, and sometimes, giving them away just isn’t an option, especially when you’re still running for a decades-old operating system.
Recycle Everything Electronics
When you want to get rid of your computer, just dumping it all in the trash would be quite appealing, but this isn’t the way to go.
Most computers contain harmful chemicals that need to be disposed of properly, but luckily, most major manufacturers also provides recycling options, free of charge, to their customers.
Just call up your manufacturer’s office. Of course, many DIY projects have also involved the use of old computer cases.
Most major companies have also begun finding ways to encourage recycling and reduction of waste. Nowadays, everything from your roof tops to your old basketball shoes from high school can be given to a store for reselling, recycling or up-cycling, so there’s no reason to put anything to waste. What other items do you often find yourself recycling?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Apart from her usual blogging activities, Sookie Lioncourt also works on a new project – DIY house items to organize her cluttered space. She’s now obsessing in placing her ‘old but still working’ items in a box to be recycled in the nearest recycle center in their area, or to be made into something new for her new organized space. For more recycling and DIY tips, you can tweet Sookie.
